Knotts Knitts

Sunday, February 01, 2009

I think it's time to admit it to myself. I have a yarn problem. I noticed yesterday while at a swanky mall with Hubs. I noticed a woman wearing a garter stitch scarf by a make-up counter and had the following exchange with Hubs.

Me: Is it bad that I know what yarn was used to make that lady's scarf?Hubs: laughsMe: It's Lorna's Laces, Shepherd Worsted in the Aslan colorway.Hubs: abruptly stops laughing

That incident occurred within weeks of my blundering attempt at complimenting a stranger's Lady Eleanor wrap. Immediately found out that she wasn't the knitter and had no idea what I was talking about, so I blathered on a bit to explain that it's a popular knitting pattern.

*sigh* There really needs to be an easier way to easily identify fellow fiber folk. :)

Friday, January 23, 2009

I finally knitted a sweater, and keeping with my resolutions for 2009, it's for me.

Me blending in quite well with the white walls

It's the February Lady Sweater made from good-ole Cascade 220. I wish I would have made the next size smaller as it's a bit floppy in the arms. I decided to error on the side of caution and sized up to fit well in the chest area. Only modification I made was to work button holes every 2 inches to give me a total of 4 and not 3 buttons. I loathe gaping button bands. Started my sweater on December 26th and finished it on January 17th. I loved the lace pattern and the seamless construction. Going to have to find more seamless sweater patterns in my size :)

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Whew! Knotts Knitts just saw a flurry of activity that it hasn't seen since the summer of 2007. I redid my template. Out with the Harry Potter related conundrums and in with something a bit more hobbity. I quite like the the new and improved look if I do say so myself!

Looking back at my 2008 resolutions post, I find myself to be pleasantly surprised that I did meet most of my goals for the year. Well, apart from not trying my hand at fair isle knitting. Throughout the year, I have definitely been more conscious of my professional look and have been putting a lot more effort towards it. I even wore make-up daily for a few months, but then I realized that the extra 30 minutes of sleep is desperately needed. This year, I'm proud to say, I kept my Christmas knitting in check. Amazingly, I was not up Christmas Eve trying desperately to finish gifts. Instead, I started Christmas knitting in AUGUST. (I kid you not!) I even had time in the days leading up to Christmas to start non-holiday related projects. I did successfully make a sampler from Subversive Cross Stitching, but I abandoned that hobby after a disastrous night where Bandit ate two skeins of floss.

For 2009, I have a few new goals.

Make strides on being more environmentally friendly. The subdivision where I reside is not offering trash service to residents starting in March, so I now have the opportunity to pay for new trash services which include recycling. More conscious efforts to use my plethora of green bags. I do well on large grocery runs, but flake out and forget the one I carry around with me for quick one off stops.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Dipping my toes back into blogging post holidays. I'll catch up on holiday knitting a bit later. Tonight, I'm sharing my pumpkin roll recipe. I tend to take a pumpkin roll with me to most holiday gatherings and have received a lot of great feedback about them over the past several years. Enjoy!

To Make Filling: Cut cream cheese into roughly inch squares. Place cream cheese in food processor evenly. Add butter and vanilla. Blend. Add powdered sugar by 1/4 cup increments, blending well after each addition. Set icing aside. (Note: Make sure to cut the cream cheese and place evenly in processor and add powdered sugar slowly or else the food processor may trip a breaker.)

To Make Roll:

1. In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugar beating well. Add pumpkin, mixing until blended. I use my mixer for this step.2. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Make sure all baking powder isn't clumpy, baking powder clumps taste nasty in a finished roll. Add to egg mixture gradually, mixing well.3. Spread batter into a greased and wax paper lined jelly roll pan. I use a 12x17 inch jelly roll plan, but I don't spread it over the entire pan. Can use a smaller sized deep sided cookie sheet just fine, too. Shake pan vigorously to evenly distribute batter.4. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Remove the cake and waxed paper and place upside down on a cooling rack.5. Remove the waxed paper carefully. A sharp knife really helps with the hard to peel off sticky spots.6. Roll the cake up in a tea towel fairly tightly so it will cool in its eventual shape starting with the shortest edge. Set aside and cool for 20-30 minutes.7. Unroll cake and spread filling over cake and roll it back up.8. Place the cake, seam side down on aluminum foil, wrap in foil and chill for at least 2 hours in fridge or placed directly in freezer if freezing for future use.

I usually set aside an entire day before the holidays and mass produce these rolls. They're pretty easy to set up in a more production line style. While one roll is in the oven, another batter can be started. Also, the cooling step in #6 can last longer than 30 minutes until you've completed the baking steps for all rolls you're making. Finally, if you wrap the roll very securely in aluminum foil, the pumpkin rolls can be frozen for a few weeks with no degrading of the taste or texture. The night before an event, I can take a roll out of the freezer and thaw it in the fridge. Happy baking!

Monday, September 15, 2008

I believe I should receive the award for the lamest "active" blogger out there. Enough posts on my blog right now that posts from March are still visible on my front page in September. *head desk*

It's been a trying week. After spending all day last Sunday and most of Monday evening completely engrossed in Spore, my main computer completely croaked Monday night. Lots of game progress and ~1.5 years of data gone when my hard drive took a permanent face plant. A replacement hard drive came in the mail last Friday. I had set aside Saturday for a rescue attempt at my files on the old one. No such luck, even as a second disk it couldn't be mapped. :( But, I was able to salvage my iTunes library from my iPod. *cheers* Note from the now very wise, take frequent back-ups of home PCs, too. I work in IT and should know better than keeping everything locally. >.<

Overall, the summer was pretty damned crazy schedule wise. I've been relishing a few quiet weekends at home lately, particularly getting in a lot of reading and knitting time. I'm a huge homebody at heart and judge how well a weekend or vacation goes based off the number of days I didn't have to leave the house. :)